Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear As is the smile upon thy face: Flowers laugh before thee on their beds And fragrance in thy footing treads; Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong; And the most ancient heavens, through thee, are fresh and strong. 45 To humbler functions, awful Power! I call thee: I myself commend And in the light of truth thy Bondman let me live! 50 MILTON! thou should'st be living at this hour: And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power. Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea: Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, So didst thou travel on life's common way, In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart The lowliest duties on herself did lay. |